Another Tropical buy!

I bought a plant yesterday at a charity plant sale for £1.50. The seller didn’t know what it was and I tend to have a ‘buy it if I haven’t got one already’ mentality. I now think it’s a Vipers Bugloss- happy to be corrected- see pic. If it is that I know they can be huge and that’s fine.
I’ve had a bit of a read up but google gives differing opinions and I was going to put it just behind where you see it in the pic, taking out other plants already there. I also plan to wrap it well over winter. But having read they like full sun I’m wondering if it will be happy there as it will be shaded by the fence until midday. The only other alternative to give it full sun would be to have it on my south facing patio, I do have a huge pot spare that is about 2’ in diameter. Then it can be wrapped and transferred to unheated greenhouse for winter.
Also I know it won’t flower this year but should it be fed and what sort of watering would it prefer? Many thanks in anticipation.

 

Echium, probably pininana.
They are reasonably hardy but I find anything below minus 5 usually makes a mess of them, it's mostly a combination of wet and cold that often rots them off in winter.

Often wrapping holds moisture so not a good idea unless you are prepared to remove it every morning.

I'd go for some where where it will get winter sunshine, it's easy to find some sun now but in January it's not.
If you are in a cold area I'd opt for the pot treatment, and a cold green house would keep the leaves dry so any frost damage would be lessened.

 

Should add they like lots of water in hot weather other wise they stop growing, and if pot grown quite a lot of feeding once established in the pot.

 

Many thanks. That`s all great advice. I`m thinking the pot will be the safest option - it is a huge pot and I think it has been empty for years just waiting for the right plant! As i work 13 hour shifts the wrapping and unwrapping may start with good intentions then fall by the wayside when I can`t be bothered to get my fingers frozen off on dark mornings..

 

One more thing Pete. If it is a very cold spell do you think a fleece bag in the greenhouse might help. Not sure what the temp is in there but I would think it still gets fairly cold.

 

Yeah, possibly, but I would think it will take a few degrees of frost if its leaves are dry.
The usual problem is that water gets in the growing point, the hairy nature of the plant holds it there, then we get a frost.

The amount of winter days when you can go all day dry, and then just before dark we get a heavy shower followed by the sky clearing and a frosty night, its so annoying.

 

This pininana is confusing me with its behaviour. It is in a huge pot in a really sunny spot and for the first week we had really hot weather and it was wilty early afternoon, so I gave it some shade from the hottest rays thinking it was because it was recently re-potted from quite a small pot. Now we have had a few cloudy days that are much cooler and it still does this wilty thing by lunchtime then tends to perk up by evening. The compost is moist because we have had plenty of showers lately and if it has got dry I have given it a good drink in the evenings.

 

In a huge pot???
Much bigger than the one it was in before?
Just wondering, they like a fair amount of water in hot weather to continue to grow but they also like to be well drained.

Hope its not root rot, hold off on the watering and keep it shaded, should we get any hot sunshine, they do tend to do this but with care it should pick up.

 

Yes it’s a huge pot compared to what it was in. Like I say, it perks up again in the evening and always looks fine by morning. Here’s a pic of Mr. Wilty this afternoon and there’s no sun.

 

Big is not always beautiful, I like to pot plants on into progressively bigger pots until the final pot size, makes better use of the compost and avoids over watering and root rot that can happen with a small plant sitting in a large amount of wet compost.